Studs Terkel

Working

£80

Introduced By Scott Simon

The fascinating working lives of ordinary people are revealed in Studs Terkel’s masterful chronicle of American life, published as an illustrated edition for the first time by Folio.

Working

£80

Book Details

Presentation Box & BindingBound in cloth printed and spot-varnished with a design by Jamie Keenan
Plain slipcase

Dimensions9¼ inches x 8¼ inches

FontSet in Garamond with Benguiat as display

Pages744 pages

AuthorStuds Terkel

IllustrationDouble-sided frontispiece plus 38 pages of colour plates and 9 integrated greyscale part-titles

Publication Date22/10/2019

Editor's Notes

Ward Quaal’s working day starts at 4.30 a.m. long before his driver arrives to take him to his Broadcasting Corporation office; Bud Freeman wakes up around midday and plays jazz for a living; Eric Hoellen supplements his janitor’s duties with undercover work for the FBI. We hear from miners, stockbrokers, waitresses, gravediggers and piano tuners alike in this famous collection of conversations that is honest, funny and endearing, sometimes outrageous and simply extraordinary. Newly presented in a square format, this arresting collector’s edition is lavishly illustrated and includes a fascinating introduction by one of America’s finest broadcasters, Scott Simon.

A remarkable new edition of a classic text

This first-ever illustrated edition of Working includes 40 colour photographs from the Documerica project of 1972–7, stored in the US National Archives. These glimpses of 1970s Americana are presented alongside a binding design by celebrated cover artist Jamie Keenan showing a rarely seen image of Terkel interviewing in Chicago and a striking photographic collage.

1 of 6

A remarkable new edition of a classic text

This first-ever illustrated edition of Working includes 40 colour photographs from the Documerica project of 1972–7, stored in the US National Archives. These glimpses of 1970s Americana are presented alongside a binding design by celebrated cover artist Jamie Keenan showing a rarely seen image of Terkel interviewing in Chicago and a striking photographic collage.

2 of 6

A remarkable new edition of a classic text

This first-ever illustrated edition of Working includes 40 colour photographs from the Documerica project of 1972–7, stored in the US National Archives. These glimpses of 1970s Americana are presented alongside a binding design by celebrated cover artist Jamie Keenan showing a rarely seen image of Terkel interviewing in Chicago and a striking photographic collage.

3 of 6

A remarkable new edition of a classic text

This first-ever illustrated edition of Working includes 40 colour photographs from the Documerica project of 1972–7, stored in the US National Archives. These glimpses of 1970s Americana are presented alongside a binding design by celebrated cover artist Jamie Keenan showing a rarely seen image of Terkel interviewing in Chicago and a striking photographic collage.

4 of 6

A remarkable new edition of a classic text

This first-ever illustrated edition of Working includes 40 colour photographs from the Documerica project of 1972–7, stored in the US National Archives. These glimpses of 1970s Americana are presented alongside a binding design by celebrated cover artist Jamie Keenan showing a rarely seen image of Terkel interviewing in Chicago and a striking photographic collage.

5 of 6

A remarkable new edition of a classic text

This first-ever illustrated edition of Working includes 40 colour photographs from the Documerica project of 1972–7, stored in the US National Archives. These glimpses of 1970s Americana are presented alongside a binding design by celebrated cover artist Jamie Keenan showing a rarely seen image of Terkel interviewing in Chicago and a striking photographic collage.

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Studs Terkel (1912–2008) was a radio-talk-show host, raconteur, genius interviewer and oral historian. He was a master chronicler of American life in the 20th century through his radio programme, The Studs Terkel Show, and through his many books, including Division Street: America (1967), Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (1970), Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About It (1972), The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two (1984), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession (1992), Coming of Age: Growing Up in the Twentieth Century (1995), and Touch and Go: A Memoir (2007). His searching interviews with ordinary Americans helped transform oral history into a popular literary form. Syndicated from Chicago — the city Terkel became permanently associated with and where he had made his home — his radio show ran for 45 years, from 1952 to 1997. He interviewed both unknown and famous people, including figures as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Simone de Beauvoir, Arthur Miller, J. K. Galbraith, Bob Dylan, Dorothy Parker, Marlon Brando, Martin Luther King and Oliver Sacks. Terkel was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a recipient of a Presidential National Humanities Medal, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a George Polk Career Award and the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.

Scott Simon is one of America’s most admired writers and broadcasters. He has reported from around the world and is currently the host of the weekly show on NPR, Weekend Edition Saturday. He is also a Special Contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. He has won every major award in broadcasting, including the Peabody, the Emmy, the Columbia-DuPont Award, the Sidney Hillman Award, the Studs Terkel Award and the Order of Lincoln of the State of Illinois. Simon is also the author of eight books, including Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan (2000) and the novels Pretty Birds (2005) and Windy City (2008). Simon is a native of Chicago. He met Studs Terkel when he was a child, and began his national broadcast career working out of the WFMT studios, where Terkel was legend-in-residence.